After wearing purple and orange shoes, Jimmy Butler says orange hair is not subliminal

Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler said after a win over the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night that his hair color change from blue to orange didn’t have anything to do with the trade reports linking him to the Phoenix Suns or otherwise.

“I can change my hair to whatever color I want to,” he said after playing the game wearing a purple, orange and yellow colorway of his Li-Ning JB2 shoes. “And there is no subliminals in my hair. I have been changing it a lot lately. Orange was the brightest color that I had so that’s what I went with.”

The “brightest?”

Butler’s comment sure sounds subliminal itself next to John Gambadoro’s report for Arizona Sports on Thursday. Gambadoro said he believes Butler’s number one choice is to play for the Suns.

Jimmy Butler went all out on his Phoenix Suns troll last night with his Hair and shoe colors 😭 pic.twitter.com/oImNdabbxc

— Emo Jimmy (@HeatCulture13) December 13, 2024

Gambadoro confirmed earlier reporting from ESPN’s Shams Charania, who said the Heat wing had interest in joining Phoenix and three other teams if he’s traded from Miami.

Butler had changed his hair color frequently in the past month, and fans quickly linked that all four could correspond to one of the reported favorite landing spots for Butler: the Warriors (yellow), Rockets (red), Mavericks (blue) and Suns (orange).

Charania on Tuesday said Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, had thrown out that list of four teams his client might be interested in playing for. Lee went to X to dispute that report, calling it “fabricated.”

Butler was asked Thursday about his agent’s questioning of Charania.

“I (expletive) love it. I love it,” Butler said. “I am all for the back-and-forth. Before he was my agent, that’s like a — I guess we’re like brothers now, we do everything together. But I feel for him. At least somebody’s sticking up for me.”

Butler is on an expiring $48.8 million salary with a $52.4 player option for next year when he will play at 36 years old.

It is likely his name in the news cycle has begun because he’s yet to receive a contract extension with the Heat, something ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said is likely the No. 1 goal before Butler’s camp begins seriously pushing for a trade.

He has yet to request one, according to multiple reports.

How could the Suns trade for Jimmy Butler?

Phoenix would need to move off of Bradley Beal’s contract to pursue Butler if interested, and Beal would also have to lift a no-trade clause in his contract.

Because the Suns are a second apron team, they cannot aggregate salaries in a deal for Butler, who is averaging 19.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game.

Gambadoro confirmed that, as Spotrac.com’s Keith Smith determined, Phoenix and Miami could in theory work out a two-team trade if the Heat also include a veteran’s minimum contract going the Suns’ direction.

The Heat cannot do a one-for-one trade because it would push them into second-apron territory.

Phoenix would likely need to send more filler to Miami such as draft picks, but Gambadoro adds he does not believe the Suns give up their first-round choice in 2031 to get a deal done.

The question leads us to this, which makes such a deal look untenable: Do the Heat want to take on Beal’s contract that pays out $50.2 million this year, $53.7 million next season with a $57.1 million player option for 2026-27?

What did Jimmy Butler previously say about his name in trade rumors?

“I actually like it,” said Butler, who is averaging 19 points per game this season. “It’s good to be talked about. I don’t think there’s such a thing as bad publicity — to a point.”

Butler’s future in Miami has been a talking point for some time now.

The Heat could have offered an extension last summer and chose not to, presumably for a variety of reasons including Butler’s age — he’s 35 — and the fact that he missed 26% of Miami’s games over his first five seasons with the team.

He still clearly impacts winning: Miami is 8-2 this season when he scores at least 18 points. And the Heat aren’t new to trade speculation; Tyler Herro has been the centerpiece of rumors in each of the last three summers. He is still in Miami, playing at an All-Star level and is the reigning Eastern Conference player of the week.

“Any other narrative, I don’t care. Nobody should because most of this stuff has just been all a bunch of gibberish,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said this week.

Butler said Wednesday that money doesn’t really matter to him at this point. He stopped short of saying that he wants to absolutely remain in Miami — “I’m pretty sure y’all are going to get a report that’s going to say otherwise anyways, so there’s no sense in me answering that question,” he said — and that he’s not fixated on extensions or trades.

“My kids matter, my happiness matters, my well-being matters and my family matters,” Butler said. “Right now, it’s all about competing, staying healthy, playing some great basketball. I think I’ve done that so far, so we’ll see what we got.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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